Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The society today is riddled with a colossal number of health and wellness concerns. Despite the progress in social and economic aspects, the world is fraught with the exigencies at large. The paradigm shift that took place from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals has clearly earmarked the issues related to health, wellness and sanitation and helped in drawing attention of the policy-makers. With the changing demographics and disease epidemiologies, the world is faltering in parameters of mortality rates due to rise in various communicable and non-communicable diseases, that could be prevented if timely monitoring and reporting had been done. Through the review of literature, it is implicit that the technological interventions have the due potential to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare and allied domains. In this paper, the author draws a tangential framework, beginning from Michele Foucault’s “medical gaze” to the current trend of “smart wearables,” to monitor one’s health indicators and discusses the underpinnings of the above mentioned paradigm shift that has occurred with passing time, under the theoretical framework of post-modernism. One of the aims of health policies have been prevention of diseases and promotion of good health through cross-sectoral action and access to technologies to provide universal access to healthcare. Timely monitoring leads to “preventive approach” of treatment rather than “curative approach,” resulting in less medical expenditures. The paper suggests that monitoring has advanced significantly with technological interventions playing an active role, resulting in better health statistics.